‘The Huntress’ by Kate Quinn

There are number of ‘women in war’ books that I’ve enjoyed: Code Name Verity, The Nightingale, and this author’s other book The Alice Network to name just a few. The Huntress is about war heroes, war criminals, and Nazi hunters. It’s also about journalists and photographers who were crucial participants in the war effort.

I found the book was longer than it needed to be but in the end I think it was well done and I’m glad I stuck with it. It’s not a quick read (until the last 100 pages), but still worth it both as background to the characters in the novel, as well as for historical content. I did learn a lot of new things about WW 2 which is amazing considering how many novels about that time period I’ve read. So kudos to the author for that!

Three narrators take turns telling the story: a battle-haunted British journalist, a feisty female Russian fighter pilot, and a young woman photographer in America who has a very mysterious step-mother who may well be a monster. I don’t consider that a spoiler because with a title like “The Huntress,” a reader would have to be quite dim not to see what was going on early in the novel and that’s ok. With that knowledge the tension builds in the present at the same time as the backstories converge to a thrilling climax.